Abstract

There are now good theoretical reasons to believe that experimental current-voltage relationships for cold field electron emission (CFE) should approximately obey the empirical law , where , , and are effectively constant, and . Since , for a given emission situation could be experimentally established from an appropriate data plot if sufficiently accurate current-voltage measurements were available. Knowledge of experimental values could lead to greater physical understanding of CFE and variations as between materials. It is strongly urged that the feasibility of measurements of this kind be carefully explored.